I really love the idea of centering activities around a theme. Apple theme is going strong but I am doing in a very slow pace not just to overwhelm M. Today set up this sorting sensory bin.
Things needed
- Red and green pom poms
- TP rolls
- Velcro dots
- Brown construction paper
- Green foam sheet
- Split green gram
- Red and Green cups
Start making the trees with toilet paper roll and foam sheet. For the tree trunk wrap the brown paper around it. Cut the tree top from green foam sheet and attach velcro dots on pom pom and foam sheet. Sprinkle loose pom poms in the sensory base ( I used split green gram here) and add the cups. Don’t forget to keep some scoopers and tongs for more refined fine motor skills
M really loved scooping and transferring the green gram to cups. She switched from measuring cups to scoopers. R used tongs to pick pom poms and sorted them. Later they exchanged their tools without much fuss.
Later I encouraged her to pluck the ‘apples ‘ from the tree and sort. She was more interested in taking them out but no sorting. I know she is capable to do that but if a bin is there she prefers transferring work.
Sensory bins are a great way to bring the kids together here. It encourages parallel play and sharing. There is also a lot they can learn from each other by creating play scenarios.